Tag Archive: Yale on the Trail: Demographics

  1. Candidates mirror party demographics

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    MUNCIE, Indiana, 5:25 p.m. — Earlier today, I was driving around the bustling town of Muncie, trying to get a few errands done before trekking back to school later this week. Typical for me, I let my mind wander. It wandered onto Saturday night’s debates on ABC.

    I watched the debates then, and I watched them again Sunday on CNN. I thought I’d digested just about everything I was going to draw from the four-hour-long program, first featuring the six Republicans and then the four Democrats.

    However, on my drive today, I realized a little something about the two sets of candidates. The Republicans were six white males. The Democrats consist of one white male, one black male, one Hispanic male and one white woman. Diversity, or for the former, a lack thereof. It’s so obvious that I didn’t see it.

    The division between race and gender among each party’s presidential candidates is not mere coincidence. It makes a statement about the parties those candidates represent.

    The Republicans appeal to a majority that has maintained power in America since the colonial period. The Democrats are the minorities who have never been adequately represented in American political life, and together, they intend to rectify history.

    –Chris Young

  2. College Republicans president predicts youth vote will be decisive

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    WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, 9:56 a.m. — “These teams in the WAC conference, you get one team like Boise beating Utah and all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Let us play for a national championship.’ Then you put a team like Hawaii up against Georgia, you say, ‘Here you go, try playing a BCS against an SEC team and watch what happens.’”

    Believe it or not, we’re talking politics with University of Iowa College Republicans President Greg Baker. Greg is a junior at the U — a polisci/history double major and one of the nicest guys we’ve met on the campaign trail. It doesn’t take much to change gears from Mitt Romney’s suburban support into a a full-fledged debate about the merits of Iowa football.

    As much as he loves football, the game of politics is really Baker’s first love. He’s lived in Earlham (pronounced earl-um), Iowa, his whole life, but he’ll go back to Iowa City on Thursday night to make his voice heard in his first-ever Republican caucus.

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